The Suns kept Claude in their hands, waiting for the price. Now the trouble is coming.
Due to Booker’s pulled groin on the inner side of his left thigh, it is now clear that the battle will be suspended for a month. The Suns attack is seriously damaged and there is no real scorer. In the last 5 games, the Sun lost 4 games, and in the past 13 games, it was only 4 wins and 9 losses, and the ranking in the West has dropped to fifth.
Did general manager James Jones overestimate Claude? Didn’t Zhan always cover Claude for too long? Will Claude hit it in his hand?
How much is Claude Worth? The outside world has different views from the Suns. One thing is clear evidence: The Wizards want to exchange the eight village base and the Suns, and Zhan does not want it. Zhan wants Kuzma, but Qi does not give it.
In the talent team, the top three scores were 20 +, followed by Bill, Porzingis and Kuzma (21.6), of which Kuzma was only 0.3 points less than Porzingis. The fourth place turned to eight villages, 12.9 points, nearly 9 points less than Kuzma.
Claude didn’t play one game this year, with 9.4 points last season, 11 points in the semi-final of last season and 11.7 points in the finals of the previous season. In the eyes of Wizards, if there is no hope to play the playoffs, Claude is not worth the price of Kuzma.
Kuzma and Claude have different characteristics and functions, and the contract situation is even more different.
Kuzma is young, 27 years old as the playing year, and this season is still improving. Although the average score is the third in the queue, the total score is the first, because he hardly takes time off and is less injured, so far, only one is missing.
The big man now requires three points. Kuzma’s 34.1% hit rate is not qualified, but he has more shots, reaching 7.5 times per game. In the 35 matches he has played, there were 8 three-point shots to more than 10 times. In the game of losing to the Clippers, Kuzma scored 35 points in 7 of the 11 three-point goal and grabbed 12 rebounds. Such a large number of shots forced the opponent to defend. According to statistics, in the height of Kuzma, only Tatum shot more than him in three points, reaching 9.3 per game, with a hit rate.
In addition, kurzma can launch an attack independently with the ball, regardless of whether the block breaks through the attack basket or the low back eating dislocation. Now the Suns lack such people, Claude refused to fight, Cameron Johnson was wounded, Craig would not.
In addition to his own offensive score, Kuzma also has the ability to pass the ball, with an average of 3.6 assists and the highest occupation. Twice this year, he almost played three pairs. His only three pairs in NBA were played against basketable Nets last season. If he was given enough football rights, there should be more opportunities.
Why did such Kuzma leave? In fact, this is only a commercial judgment. In 2020, he signed a three-year 40 million-year contract with the Lakers, 13 million a year, but he has the option next season, that is, he can end the contract early next summer. According to the current performance, Kuzma certainly hopes to get an annual salary of more than 25 million, so it is better to change something instead of letting him run away in vain to jump out of the contract in expectation.
Contrary to Kuzma, Claude is 32 years old. His full advantage lies in his defensive and playoff experience. That is to say, he needs a limited range of teams, usually a strong team to win the championship, or young teams who want to make the playoffs. On scoring ability, Claude and Kuzma cannot compare. He is plug-in type, and Kuzma can become a part of the motherboard.
Claude’s shot was mainly three points. Last season, 67 percent of his shots were downtown, with a hit rate of only 34.8 percent. However, he was crafty when he voted three points, and often fell back to cheat the foul, which was very useful in the playoffs.
But Claude’s real strength is defense. With a height of 198 and a weight of 106 kilograms, he is very strong and has the same type as Tucker. Therefore, those strong teams all hope that Claude will become the short number 4, which can relieve a garrison any position and stare at the outside sharp knife of the other side when necessary. Because of this advantage, Claude changed teams frequently in recent years, from Mavericks to Celtics, went to the Cavaliers to assist James, and played the finals on behalf of the heat and the sun in 2020 and 2021 respectively.
In these years, Claude played 19 rounds of playoffs, including 2 finals, 2 East finals, 1 West round, 2 East semi-finals and 3 West semi-finals, totaling 107 games. But Kuzma only had 27 games in 5 rounds. However, he went through the Championship process with the Lakers in 2020.
This season is Claude’s contract year. He heard that the Suns may promote Cameron Johnson to the starting point, at least giving him a lot of time, so he was very unhappy and proposed to replace himself, no change, no fight.
Claude’s approach made the general manager of some teams unable to keep an eye on him, believing that he lacked professional ethics. Regardless of this, Claude put Mr. Zhan in a dilemma. The purpose of signing him at the beginning was to let him help the Suns play the playoffs, but now he can only change. Claude is suitable for the Suns, but not necessarily for all teams. He may bring more than 10 million effects to the Suns, but most teams do not think he is worth the money.
For example, in the Stag and heat, Claude can bring a similar effect to Tucker, but not necessarily in the Wizards. The Wizards won only 15 games and ranked 12th in the east. It’s hard to say whether they can enter the additional game. It’s not so much about Claude’s ability as his upcoming contract.
The Wizards don’t want to give up Kuzma, at least they haven’t decided to give up yet, because there is still more than one month before the trading deadline on February 9, and there are 19 games in the middle. After a 10-game losing streak, the Wizards ushered in a short rebound, winning 4 in 5 games, and won the Suns in two games, one with Bill and the other.
At least now the Wizards are still trying to find the chemical equation of Bill, Kuzma and Porzingis until the deadline of February 9. At the same time, they also tried to explore the possibility of exchanging Claude, but they were only willing to hand over the eight villages. Although it was the 9th show in the first round of that year, the eight villages have not made any progress in the past four years, and the Suns naturally look down on it. Such young people have limited help in playing the playoffs.
There are many opinions about the places of Claude and Kuzma, among which the more popular version is a third party, such as Eagle: Claude goes to the Eagle, John colons goes to the Wizard, Kuzma goes to the sun.
Of course, there are other versions, such as Collins of the Eagle going to jazz, Claude going to Eagle, Beasley and Vanderbilt going to the sun, but in this version, Jazz will ask for more than one first-round signing.
Those who really need Claude are still strong teams, such as Bucks, heat and basketable nets. However, such a team won’t let the Suns Zhan always be satisfied with the exchange object. After all, Claude is just a puzzle, which is not worth hurting the muscles and bones.
Will Mr. Zhan regret keeping Claude in his hand for so long? At least he is worried now, not others, because Booker was injured and twenty-ninth points were lost in a game.